Pecan Pie
by Grasspaw
Summary: ["Birthday Celebrations" AU] After being more or less rescued from the Cheap Flask by Remus Lupin - or RJ Marauder, the name on the cover of the bestselling books he writes - Tonks thinks it's really only polite to thank him with a gift of pie. And, well, if she happens to get a few books signed in the process, it's really just luck.


**THIS IS A SEQUEL TO "BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS." Read that first, or this really won't make any sense. IAnd I'm sorry for not posting anything last month, I was doing NaNoWriMo again and just never got around to telling you all... Sorry. So I was bored, and having some major Remus/Dora feels (do they have a cutesy ship name? I'm rather fond of those), so I figured I'd write a quick little thingy (and my 'quick' I mean 'this took me over a month to write') and post it for all you peoples. And yes, I mention Charlie in this, because... I like Charlie. And I can see him and Tonksy being friends. Like that kind of "everyone thinks we're dating but we for seriously are NOT" kind of friends. Anyhow, read on and hopefully enjoy. I own nothing.**

Tonks took a deep breath, brushing back her short green curls behind her ear with one hand. In her other hand was a covered pie dish, the strong aroma of pecans filling the hallway. She gnawed nervously on her lower lip. _It's just pie. Just a simple thanks. Nothing more than that... Merlin, I'm not even fooling myself. He's going to see right through me!_

When she had called Charlie Weasley, her best guy-friend who she had never been romantically involved with, gushing about the fact that she had actually met _the_RJ Marauder, he had shared in her excitement. They had shared several happy minutes discussing the finer points of his novels, writing, and philanthropy, but when Tonks had begun telling Charlie all about how "nice and friendly and charming and gentlemanly" he was, her old friend had laughed.

"I tell you this because I love you, okay? You've got it _bad._"

She groaned now and looked down at her outfit. Huge, olive drab book bag slung over her should, black canvas sneakers, denim shorts, overlarge Weird Sisters t-shirt with the hem tied into a knot and tucked into her back pocket so that it didn't seem quite so huge on her. Her shorts seemed awfully small all of a sudden. Would he think she was being a bit too, well, obvious? She tugged them down anxiously, but they seemed determined to stay right where they were, halfway down her thigh. She wasn't really _trying_to get him to look at her legs; she'd only made them extra long because she thought it would be a nice change after going around being four feet tall the day before. And the only reason she had given herself that lovely tan because it looked so great with her green hair!

She was hopeless. She really was.

She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and wrapped on the door. There was no noise from inside, and she immediately began second guessing herself.

_What if he's not even home? Oh, that would be just my luck, wouldn't it? Then I'll have to home and I'll probably wind up eating the whole pie myself, and then I'll be in a bad mood for the rest of the week... It's really too early for pie, anyways, it's only one o' clock, and who eats pie just after lunch? Maybe he eats lunch really late anyways and is eating right now, and then he'll feel really awkward and it'll be my fault... Merlin! What was I thinking with these ridiculous shorts?_

She was just turning away when she heard dragging footsteps walking towards the door and a moan that may have been Remus's, or possibly a dying animal's. The doorknob turned, and she anxiously brushed her hair behind her ear again.

The door began to open, and she immediately began speaking. "Hi! Um, it's Tonks. I never really got around to thanking you last week, so I thought I'd... Gosh, you look awful. Are you okay?"

Remus Lupin looked terrible. His sandy brown hair was in disarray, his golden eyes were flat and had dark circles under them, and he looked pale and downright ill. And then she realized - and her breath caught in her throat when she did - that he was shirtless, wearing only dingy grey sweatpants and socks. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, squinting at her, and only then did she realize that none of the lights were on in his apartment. He must be having trouble adjusting to the lights.

"Are you sick?" she asked him anxiously. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Is that pie?" he asked instead of answering her, his voice a mere croak.

She nodded. "Pecan."

"Pecan pie would definitely help. Come on in."

He stepped back, allowing her to enter, and turned on the lights so that she could see. If the apartment had been messy the last time she was there, it was a perfect wreck now. The pizza box was still sitting on the coffee table, now empty, one of the posters had halfway fallen off the wall, and laundry and dishes were strewn about the room. Remus grabbed a faded t-shirt off the arm of the couch and pulled it on, moving carefully as though afraid of hurting himself.

"Sorry for... this," he said, waving his hand around in a vague gesture towards the apartment and himself. "I figured it'd be James or Sirius."

"It's fine," Tonks said automatically, walking into the kitchen to set the pie down. However, she soon discovered that both the table and the counters were completely covered with books, papers, pencils, and dirty dishes.

"Yeah, sorry," Remus said, materializing at her shoulder. "I was doing research in here..."

"Research?" she asked him, and he nodded, leaning against the door frame.

"Rereading some old classics. Picking up little tips about writing and characterization... You know."

"You need tips?" she teased, a the ghost of a smile flitted across his lips.

"You can put the pie down on the coffee table, if you want. Let me just toss out that pizza box..."

He grabbed the empty cardboard container and tossed it in the rubbish can, then looked around, frowning slightly.

"I... don't actually have any clean plates right now... Or napkins that we could use as plates... Tell you what." He grabbed two forks and a knife out of one of the drawers, then walked back into the living room, where Tonks was standing awkwardly, not sure whether or not she should leave. He very calmly sliced the pie in half and held out a fork towards her. "Have a seat. I'm not in the mood to be proper; we can just eat it straight out of the dish." Tonks fidgeted, and he raised an eyebrow. "If that's... okay? I mean, I could always rinse off a plate for you..."

"I'm sorry," she squeaked, rapidly changing her hair from green to pink. Remus blinked. "I'm just... trying really hard not to freak out again."

Remus blinked again, then a slow smile spread across his face. "Don't worry about it. I've endured worse. I just... wasn't really in the mood last week, what with the-" A strange expression crossed his face before he half-turned away from her and coughed violently into his elbow. Tonks winced in sympathy.

"Um," she said anxiously when the coughing had subsided, "no offense or anything, but you aren't contagious, are you?"

He gave her a grim half-smile. "No worries. It's more of a recurring thing, I've had i since I was around three."

"It just comes back at random times?" she asked with a frown, perching on the arm of the couch. Remus nodded, sticking his fork into half of the pie.

"Of course, Lily would say I'm just overworking myself, but she likes to spoil me. This is really good, Tonks," he added, spearing another bite of the dessert.

Tonks' heart dropped to the bottom of her feet so fast she nearly fell off the couch. _Auror training_, she told herself flatly, hitching a smile onto her face. _Think of this as practice._

"Thanks. Who's Lily?" she asked, taking a bite herself. Pecan pie had always been her favorite, but now it tasted flat and disgusting.

"Friend of mine from Hogwarts," Remus said, leaning forward to take another bite. "We were Prefects together in Gryffindor."

Tonks searched her memory. "The redhead?" Remus nodded. "Wasn't she dating the Gryffindor Seeker?"

Remus nodded again, taking a moment to swallow before he answered. "James, yeah. They got married a few years back."

"Oh," Tonks said complacently, and suddenly all was right with her world. This really was good pie.

They ate in silence for several more moments before Remus seemed to feel obligated to break the silence. "So what are you doing now you're out of Hogwarts?"

"I'm hoping to be an Auror," she said brightly. Applications for internships can be sent in next month."

"You think you'll make it?"

She rolled her eyes expressively. "Well I _hope_so. My grades are high enough, but I'm dead clumsy, so-"

_"Is this what lies beyond the veil? Is this what happens if-_"

"Oh, just a second," she muttered, flushing. "It's my mum." She slid the phone open. "Mum, I'm a little-"

Her mother spoke over her, her voice very pleasant - always a bad sign. "Dora, it would seem that your father thought it would be amusing to burst one of the pipes in the sink, and our kitchen is now flooding at an alarming rate."

"Face, meet palm," Tonks muttered, grimacing. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Well, I got the pipes fixed, but the place is still full of water, so if you could perhaps leave your date early to come home-"

Tonks' eyes snapped open, bright green in shock and a fair amount of horror. "Mum!"

She heard her mother huff in annoyance. "Nymphadora, just come home, will you? No no no, wait, Ted, don't... oh, dear." There was the sound of a cat's angry yowling in the background, and Andromeda continued on testily, "I _told you to just pick the cat up, but no, you had to go and levitate it, and [i]now_look what happened!"

Tonks sighed in annoyance. "I'll head back soon, Mum. Bye."

She turned the phone off, then looked apologetically at Remus, who had made quite a dent in his half of the pie. "I'm sorry, my dad flooded the kitchen..."

He snorted and said around a mouthful of pie, "Sounds like mine. Can't do any sort of work around the house without blowing something up." He swallowed. "Here, you can go ahead and take your dish back-"

"Oh, it's fine," she said hurriedly. "I'll just come pick it up... sometime? I guess?"

"Sure," he said with a friendly smile, and her heart gave an odd little flutter in her chest as she beamed back at him. She stood, twisting around to stick her phone back in her pocket, and as she did so she accidentally knocked her bag off the couch. It landed on the carpet with a loud _thunk_, and Remus bent down to pick it up, grunting in surprise as he encountered the unexpected weight of her bag.

"What's in here?" he asked, handing it to her. She smiled sheepishly.

"Books."

"Any of mine?" he asked teasingly, and she felt her cheeks go pink.

"Well, see, that's the thing, I was kind of, I mean, I know you don't usually, since you like to keep your anonymity, but since I already know, I was wondering, could you possibly-"

He sighed quietly. "Which books did you want me to sign?"

"All of them!" she squeaked, diving into her bag. "I've got the whole series - well, minus the fifth one, since it's not exactly out yet - and it would just mean so much to me if you'd sign them for me, and I-"

He let out a soft, incredulous laugh as she handed the stack of books over. "How on earth did you manage to fit all four of these into that bag?"

She shrugged. "I'm rather talented. Do you need a quill?"

He looked up at her in amusement. "Do you have one?"

In answer, she held the quill out with a sheepish smile. Remus shook his head, accepted it, and flipped open the cover of _Unseen._He scribbled something, grabbed the next book, and repeated the process, until all four books had had a quick note written in the front. She fought the urge to let out a dreamy sigh.

"Here you go," he said, handing the books back with the quill on top of the stack.

"Thanks," she said, still slightly embarrassed but thrilled at the same time. "I, um, I'd better go. I'll stop by next week to pick up the pie dish?"

"Sure thing," he said. "See you then."

She turned and left, walking quickly out of the flat and down the hall. She hit the button for the lift, and while she waited for the doors to open she fell back, leaning against the wall and finally letting out that dreamy sigh. She quickly flipped open the first book.

_Thanks for the pie!  
~Remus_

Just _wait_ until Charlie heard about this!


End file.
